A carved elk antler which has been incised and painted with abstracted eagle tail fans, or headdress motifs. The accompanying strap, made of buffalo, is beaded with seed and pony beads.

Quirts played a central role in the warrior complex of the Indigenous American West, particularly on the Prairie. Beyond their immediate function on horseback, they served a variety of purposes. Warriors used them as weapons in combat and as instruments of discipline within camps and warrior societies. During the Reservation Period (1880–1920), quirts also became important heirlooms, allowing a younger generation of confined warriors to inherit their families’ war honors and establish social standing.

Most significantly, quirts were instruments through which warriors counted coup — the act of charging and merely touching an enemy rather than killing him. This gesture demonstrated superior courage and restraint; it was widely regarded as one of the highest expressions of bravery on the battlefield. The quirt afforded a warrior additional reach on horseback or foot, and consequently became a vital tool in a warrior’s arsenal for social advancement.

Carved prairie elk antler quirts are a rare object form, celebrated for the elegance and precision carving. Some notable examples can be found in the Metropolitan Museum in New York; the Detroit Institute or Arts in Detroit; and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis.

14" long (quirt); 4.5" long and 2.25" wide (strap); 17.5" long (lash); accompanied by a custom stand.

Published: Thomas Cleary LLC Summer 2018 exh. cat (Summer 2028), p.6

#51216

A pair of large rawhide saddle bags which are ornately decorated with a series of layered cutouts, backed with red and black fabric. The cutoffs reveal a variety of cutout shapes, including hearts, diamonds and crosses. The bottom fringe is accented on the ends with lobed drops which are stained in ochre.

Saddle bags are ubiquitous throughout the Plains, Plateau and Southwest. These bags, as their name suggests, typically sat on the backs of horses (in tandem with a saddle frame) and were used to transport clothing, food and equipment.

The Apache are known for their unique take on this form. Using hide and fabrics, the Apache created ornate designs using positive and negative space from cut-out designs. Artists were inspired by a variety of shapes and motifs, including Spanish and Anglo-American playing cards. This may explain the use of diamond and heart-shaped cut-outs on the subject pair.

The subject pair is truly a monumental, both in size and technical artistry. I know of few pairs which come close proportionally and with this level of ornamentation.

Ex Trotta-Bono, NY; ex Jerrold Collings, AZ.

47” long and 18” wide (as displayed); accompanied by a custom stand.

#51203

A pair of hard-sole moccasins with soft native-tanned hide uppers, stained with pigment. The moccasins are minimally decorated with sinew-sewn seed beads along the vamp, ankles and heel seam. The last is fringed. The opening is dyed with a peach-colored pigment as are the bifurcated tongue and heel fringe. The beadwork consists of simple geometric patterns within a single lazy-stitch lane: crimson/white barber pole designs; as well as alternating blue and white triangles.

Ex Arthur Rippey, CO (1907-1995)

10.5” long, excl. 6” long fringe.

#51219

Feathers holders such as these would have each accompanied a roach spreader - a hair ornament that was particularly popular in the Eastern Plains - while securing a feather. They were typically affixed to the base of a roach spreader and fastened with leather thongs.

These hollowed out bone or antlers are decorated with a program of motifs, including: “U”s, which denote horse steals; as well as crosses, which are possibly cosmological. The feather holders are stained with vermillion pigment.

1.75” tall (each)

Collected at the Upper Sioux Agency, Granite Falls, MN; ex Larry Levin, MN.

#51183

A large hide doll that wears a dress with a sinew-sewn seed beads, along with moccasins. The upper-part of the dress is painted green and decorated with a lazy-stitched panel in which a blue diamond frames a yellow cross. The doll has a braided tied hair with a face that is accented with blocks of beadwork to articulate a mouth and eyes.

Dolls were made lovingly by grandmothers and mothers for their daughters and grandchildren, respectively. These objects served as vessels for conveying notions of maternal roles and tribal artistic identity. To a new generation of female artists, dolls provided early exposure to their communities’ sophisticated beadwork traditions.

17” tall; accompanied by a custom table stand.

Ex Arthur Rippey, CO (1907-1995)

#51217

A pair of hard-soled moccasins with native-tanned hide uppers, decorated with thread and sinew-sewn seed beads. The beadwork consists of a yellow lane which divides the quarters and vamps. The vamps are uniquely decorated so that the negative space - colored in periwinkle blue - represents and abstracted buffalo hoof. Floating in this ground are two lizards. The ankles of the moccasins are lined with cones, as is the center vamp. The opening is trimmed with Stroud.

Lizards are an important animal in Plains culture, celebrated for their survival and regenerative capabilities. As such, the reptile features occasionally in Plains beadwork - with the wearer likely wanting to harness the powers of this adaptable creature.

Ex Yoshi Miyake, WA

10” long

#51221

A fringed bag, constructed out of commercial leather, which is decorated with sewn seed beads on the recto side. Floating tin the center of the bag is a quatrefoil motif which is likely composed of two abstracted multi-colored floral motifs. The periphery of the bag has blue, striped, crimson semicircles. The bottom seam of the bag is accented with circles which sit atop triangles. All of these geometrics are outlined in white. The bottom seam of the bag is lined with native tanned fringe.

Dispatch bags were prevalent in the Southern Plains. The Kiowa are today celebrated for producing some of the most iconic and beautiful extant examples. Constructed out of traded commercial leather, these bags are structurally reminiscent of cases carried by enlisted US troops who carried mail. However, indigenous dispatch bags are in fact all-purpose bags, used to house a variety of different items and suspended from belts or the pommels of saddles.

21.5" long and 7.5" wide

#51198

A case constructed out an native tanned hide, decorated with sinew-sewn seed and pony beads. The container is fastened with a metal button atop of which sits an old military insignia. The beadwork consists of alternating vertical rows of blue and yellow. The pattern is framed above and below with a pink lane as well as a navy and white barber pole motif.

Telescope cases are not altogether common, although they seem to have been most popular among groups in the Plateau and Northern Plains. As the name suggests, they were used to house telescopes, which proved important instruments on the vast open ranges of the Plains and Plateau.

Approximately 5" tall and 1.5" wide; accompanied by a custom stand.

#51199

A restrung necklace comprised of an imported shell and a selection of white and blue ornate glass trade beads. A similar necklace can by found being worn by an Apache woman in an Edward Curtis photograph entitled, “Jicarilla Maiden”.

13” long

#51196

A pair of garters that are composed of seed beads and woven with worsted wool. The design consists of a zig-zagging blue and black line and floats on a white ground. Flanking the line are a series of floating red and green blocks.

Garters were particularly popular in the Eastern Plains and Great Lakes, worn below the knee to help secure leggings. The object type is among the oldest material culture forms, with many stylistic variations. The subject examples represents an earlier generation, where the serpentine design of the lane might be an abstracted reference to the Underwater Panther - the central Great Lakes deity of the cosmological Underworld.

Ex Noakes Collection

Approximately 24” long (overall); 11” long and 2” wide (beaded panel)

#51192

Three-bladed clubs, as the name suggests, consist of a wooden haft into which three trade knife blades have been inserted and fastened. The end of the wooden haft is shaped to reveal a bird effigy which is further articulated with brass tacks to denote eyes.

This form of club was used throughout the Plains, but photographic evidence suggests that this weapon - especially with the avian-inspired form on the top - was particularly popular among the Sioux.

Ex H. Malcolm Grimmer, NM

Approximately 40” long and 11” wide; accompanied by a custom stand.

#51206

A bag constructed from native tanned buffalo hide where much of the buffalo fur is still extant on the bag’s interior. The bag is decorated on the recto and side seams with sinew-sewn seed beads. The recto is composed of alternating spaced bars of navy and powder blue. Traces of red pigment can be found between the bars, applied directly to the hide. The opening flap has beaded lane with a similar color scheme but for the addition of yellow and pink blocks. Inscribed on the back of the bag is “JHP / 537”; and on the interior of the opening, there is written, “R185.4

Ex Ex David Vernon, WY;

To Jackson Hole Preserve, WY ("JHP 537", collected 1965-1974); to Museum of the American Indian, NY; to Glenbow Museum, CANADA ("R165-4"); to Brad Mighton, CANADA (collected 2013); to private West Coast collection.

14” wide and 8” tall; accompanied by a custom stand.

#51191

A fringed bag constructed out of native tanned hide, decorated with sewn faceted glass beads organized in a lazy-stitch, along a base panel, side seams and opening. The base panel is decorated with a horizontal hour-glass motif which floats on a white background. The body of the bag is painted with ochre, while the fringe below is painted with an orange/red pigment. The bag opening features four beaded tabs which are fastened with a leather thong, the triangular ends of which are trimmed with beadwork.

Paint bags were important parts of a man or woman’s personal kits. The pigments which these bags housed were used for formal ceremonies, dances and warfare.

9” long and 3” wide

#51188

A rawhide pouch, constructed from buffalo, which is painted on both sides with stacked registers of blue and red painted diamonds, which are outlined in brown. The pigments appear o be natural, while the bag form itself appears to be a native-made recycle of a cut-down mid-19th century elliptical case.

Such recycles are quite common, especially with older more antiquated parfleche forms. The possibility that this could be formerly an old Sioux elliptical case is in part reinforced by the fact that this pouch was collected by Cyril Turner, a collector who authored the popular 1973 book, Across the Medicine Line: The Epic Confrontation Between Sitting Bull and the North-West Mounted Police.

In this case, a larger parfleche form was trimmed, folded and stitched with sinew along the newly created side seams. These recycles became particularly prevalent towards the end of the 19th century, when buffalo hide was scarce yet highly sought after.

Ex Cyril Frank Turner, CANADA (1922-2009)

#51181

A commercial leather belt with ornate incising and stamp work. The belt is accented with German Silver conchos which are secured with a leather thong which is interwoven with the commercial leather. The conchos are elaborately decorated with highly technical stamp work.

Belts such as these were typically worn by women to help secure their dresses. By the Reservation Period (1880-1920), metal work takes centerstage as a burgeoning art form. Stamp work, in particular, becomes a practice by which Southern Plains artists achieved mastery. This exceptional belt is a testament to that effort.

Ex Jim Cooley, TX

32.5” long and 3” wide

These particular types of blanket strips feature prominently in portraits taken of the Cheyenne and Arapaho in the ‘60s and ‘70s. In fact, a very similar blanket to this one was pictured in a Soule photo on an Arapaho encampment, taken between 1868 and 1874.

Blanket strips evolved, it is believe, out of a need to cover the unsightly seams on buffalo robes. They subsequently evolved during the 19th century to become a decorative element and status symbol all their own.

Older Cheyenne and Arapaho “strips” made from native tanned buffalo are today among the most sought after, often celebrated for their elegance and simplicity. This simple design is demonstrative of the transition beadworkers from pony beads to seed beads in the mi-19th century. The design format of this blanket strip is unusual, as the more common layout involves rosettes with opposing quadrants of navy or black against white.

49” long and 69” wide (blanket); 62” long and 7” wide (blanket strip).

Ex Paul Gray, NY; ex Dr. Robert Pamplin Jr, OR

Published: Mary Schlick and Bonnie Kahn, Keeping the Spirit Alive: American Indian Art from the Dr. and Mrs. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Collection (Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society Press, 2001), p. 13.

#51016

A pair of hard-soled moccasins with soft brain-tanned uppers. The vamps are fully beaded with sinew-sewn seed beads which are organized in a lazy stitch. The vamps consists of a central white diamond which is then bordered by a sequence of colored lanes, included crimson, powder blue and navy. The points of the diamond are accented with circles. The sole seams are accented with a lane which red crosses and a multi-colored triangle-box-triangle motif which floats on a white field. The quarters meanwhile are ornamented with a white-navy-white serpentine design white is flanked by four-pointed stars. The ankle flaps terminate with short fringe.

10” long

#51187